“Besides the players and me?” Coach Bale asked. “Just Ms. Fields and him,” he said, pointing to Dingle.
“And D.C. must have taken the picture,” Dingle said, apparently recovering from his inability to answer earlier.
“No.” Brooke shook her head. “When the picture filters through again you can see Abby standing off to the side. It’s only the side of her, but as the person in the picture is shorter than six feet and wearing a dress and heels, I’m guessing it’s her.”
“Rodger is the one who is behind all of this,” Abby said, turning to Lindbergh. “And I’m pretty sure he targeted Logan because he doesn’t like me.”
There was a move behind her and she turned just in time to see Bale and Ferguson restraining Logan.
“You did this?” His voice was low, shaking with rage as he glared at Dingle.
“Yes, he did.” She nodded, talking to everyone in the room. “Rodger must’ve overheard Dale talking to Logan outside the locker room right before the game. And yesterday I caught him coming out of my office, where I’m almost positive he got the picture Gemma sent of the guys at the hospital and the information about Logan’s daughter.”
“What?” The word came out on a growl and Abby looked at Logan. His eyes were narrowed on her in disbelief.
“Logan.” She held out her hands as she took a step forward, but he backed away, before he pulled out of the grip of the two men who were still attempting to restrain him.
“Why was there information about Madison in your office?”
Abby’s hands fell away in the space between them. She took a deep breath as she looked at him, words suddenly failing her.
“Why, Abby?” He repeated his question, a hardness in his eyes that made her stomach hurt.
“I did background checks on all the players. It wasn’t just you, and your—”
“Stop.” He held up his hands, silencing her. “I don’t need to hear any more.” He shook his head as he took another step back from her. “Somebody better fucking fix this,” he said to the room at large before he turned and walked through the door.
Abby followed on instinct, ignoring the calls of her name behind her. She didn’t care who she was walking away from. All she cared about was who had just walked away from her.
She had to run down the hallway to talk to him, her heels slowing her down too much to catch up to Logan’s long strides. There was no use for it; she stopped and placed her palm flat on the wall as she leaned against it, unzipping the back of her shoe and dropping it to the floor. She shifted to stand on her other foot a moment later, the other shoe hitting the ground with a thud before she started running to catch him.
“Logan, please.” She grabbed his arm just before he reached the elevator doors. “Let me explain.”
He turned to her and shook his head, pulling his arm from her grasp. “I don’t care.” He reached for the button by the elevator and pounded it with his fist.
“You don’t understand,” she pleaded.
“No, you don’t understand.” He turned to look at her, a look of loathing in his eyes. “Being with you was a mistake from the beginning.”
For the second time that evening, she flinched back like she’d been slapped.
“You were right, when you said this was too complicated. It’s a conflict of interest to be with you. It’s like you said, I despise what you do with almost every fiber of my being. This story about Madison? It’s out there because of you.”
“I…” She swallowed hard, her throat not really wanting to cooperate. “I’m sorry.” She didn’t know what else to say. The words he’d just spoken felt like a physical blow.
“I don’t care.”
The elevator dinged behind them, the doors sliding open. He took a step back from her and got on, shaking his head in cold disgust.
The doors slid shut and just like that, Logan was gone.
For so long she’d told herself all or nothing when it came to him. It was clear she was getting nothing.
Chapter Fourteen
Maybe I’ll Get Over You… or Maybe Not
Logan stared out at the darkness behind his backyard. A few lights flickered off his pool and the steady sound of the Intracoastal Waterway filled the night air along with the cicadas. He leaned back, the rocking chair creaking against the floorboards of the porch.
He finished off his beer, the third of the night, and waited for the buzz in his head to drown out the boos from earlier that evening.
They’d lost their first game of the playoffs, spectacularly so, the Boston Bruins scoring five while they enjoyed a big fat goose egg.
“Want another?” Jace said from the rocker next to him, popping the cap on a bottle and handing it to Logan before he even had a chance to answer.
He took the bottle and tipped it back, the cold beer filling his mouth and washing down his throat, bringing him closer to that buzz he was chasing.
He’d left the stadium as soon as he showered and changed, dodging the cameras that had been following him the last couple of days and wanting nothing but to be alone. But he didn’t get that wish.
Jace had shown up at the house about twenty minutes after Logan arrived home, two six-packs of beer in hand. They’d been sitting outside for the last hour, and in between the lulls of silence, they talked about the disaster of a game they’d just played.
Because reliving things was apparently the best policy these days.
It had been three days since Madison had become news. Three days since Logan was added to the continuing cycle of stories that filtered through every sports program broadcasted. Three days since he’d walked out on Abby.
Whenever he thought about her, the pain was staggering. But it came twofold, one from missing her, and the other from what she’d caused to be shared with the world.
Rodger Dingle might be the real reason everything had come to light, but no matter how Logan looked at it, Abby was partially to blame.
It was more than a bit ironic that the Stampede PR department was creating chaos PR for the Stampede. Both Dingle and Abby had been fired, Dingle for his sabotage and Abby for her relationship with Logan. None of this had remained a secret, either.
Dingle had sold everybody out, telling his side of the story to anyone who would listen. Turns out a lot of people wanted to listen, wanted to know the whole story. That’s why they were harassing Logan.
It was just too bad he wasn’t talking.
“So do you want to discuss that steal from Gordon in the second period? How you couldn’t score to save your life? Or would you like to discuss the real reason you epically sucked out on that ice tonight?”
Logan brought the bottle to his mouth again and took a swig while he held up his middle finger with his other hand.
Jace laughed as he opened another bottle for himself. “You know I’m not saying you’re the reason we lost tonight. Not at all. Every single guy on that ice sucked something fierce. We’ve done so well this season that we’ve become cocky arrogant bastards. But there was something going on with you tonight that went above and beyond that.”
“Huh, I wonder what that is?”
“So, you’re just going to walk away from this? One bump in the road and you’re done?”
Logan stopped rocking and turned to look at Jace. “One bump. Are you fucking kidding me?”
“You think she wanted any of this to happen? Do you seriously think that Abby wanted Madison’s death to be all over kingdom come? That she wanted to hurt you? Are you fucking kidding me? I really thought you were smarter than that, thought that you were figuring things out as you were letting her into your life. Something that’s shocked the hell out of me these last couple of months, because I was beginning to think that wasn’t possible.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“What do you think it means, Logan? I haven’t seen you with her all that much, but I’ve seen you. And you’re different. Happy even, which is something I haven’t seen all th
at often in the four years we’ve been friends. And another thing, in all that time you’ve mentioned Madison once, and that was when you were drunk off your ass. You don’t typically let new people in. I still don’t understand how I got past the barrier.”
“Sheer force of will probably.”
A grin cracked Jace’s lips as he brought the bottle to his mouth and took a drink. He swallowed as he studied Logan, then cleared his throat before he spoke. “I consider you to be my best friend, both on the team and off. Since I’ve known you, being with Abby is the happiest that I’ve ever seen you. And right now, right in this moment, you are the most miserable bastard I’ve ever met, and that’s saying something considering who my father is.”
Logan turned away and looked out at the backyard again, the truth in Jace’s words too much to deal with while he was looking at the guy.
“Now I know that you don’t agree with it, but she was just doing her job,” Jace said conversationally, the squeak of his chair picking up as he began to rock.
“It’s a shitty job.” The darkness seemed to intensify around them. Logan’s fingers clutched the sweating bottle of beer, the coldness of the glass leaching into his hand.
“I get that Madison is not and was not a small part of your life, Logan. She was your daughter, and her death sucked you into this massive black hole.” Jace’s voice was no longer conversational but dead serious. “But you need to pull your head out of your ass.”
Logan’s head jerked as he turned to look at his friend. “You’ve got about two seconds.”
“Or what? What are you going to do? Actually no.” He shook his head. “I’m going to tell you what you’re going to do. You’re going to listen to what I’ve got to say, Logan. Because when Abby came along, she brought you out of this black hole that you’ve been living in. That you’ve barely been surviving in. And she risked a lot to be with you. Risked her career, her reputation, and her heart I’m guessing because for whatever reason I’m pretty sure she fell in love with your stubborn ass. And you want to blame her for the truth about Madison getting out.”
“You don’t get it.” Logan was barely able to get the words out. “I miss her every damn day.”
“I know that you miss her. And I don’t fully understand that grief. The pain of burying a child is something no parent should ever have to know. So tell me, do you really think Abby was going to do something with that information? Do you really think she would try to hurt you like that? Now even I’m a smarter man than to think that.” Jace took another sip of his beer and swallowed.
“Thinking and knowing are two different things.”
“Yeah, but what does it feel like? You know the truth. You know it by how it feels. And the truth here is that you fell in love and it terrifies the shit out of you. So you think she’s done something to disappoint you, and at the first opportunity you’re running because it’s the only way you know how to deal.”
“Seriously? You want to lecture me about coping mechanisms?” Logan asked.
“Hey.” Jace held up his hands in defense, one palm flat out, the other still wrapped around his beer. “I never said I was the poster child for dealing with my baggage in a healthy way.”
Logan snorted. “No kidding.”
Yeah, Jace “dealt” with his issues by going on benders of meaningless sex. Logan knew that route good and well. It didn’t work. Especially when you found the person that makes it meaningful.
And losing that person? Yeah, it sucked all the more.
“I’m also not the guy who’s walking away from something because he’s scared of getting hurt again.” Jace shook his head. “And it’s like I said before, you don’t typically let new people in. But you let Abby in, faster than anything I’ve ever seen. She took down your defenses, and that’s why you’re so angry. All of this other stuff that you’re blaming her for? That wasn’t on her, man. That was on a guy who it looks like was hell bent on sabotaging her and you. And from where I’m sitting? He’s winning and you’re losing. And you’re losing something much bigger than a game or a trophy.”
And there was that staggering pain again. The pain that came from losing Abby, from missing her. Yeah it had only been three days, and yeah he’d gone longer than this without seeing her, without talking to her. But there hadn’t been a finality to it.
There hadn’t been that possibility that it was all over. That he’d kissed her for the last time. That he’d never make love to her again. That he’d never hear her laugh, feel her up against him, dance with her, or see her bare feet sticking out from the bottom of the comforter while she slept soundly in his bed.
Was he ready to walk away from all of that? To walk away from her?
* * *
Never in his life did Logan think he’d be voluntarily walking into the Stampede PR department. He’d pretty much vowed to have nothing to do with them ever again after the most recent clusterfuck of events. But circumstances being what they were, he was here.
He’d gone to Abby’s that morning before practice, the need to talk to her stronger than he’d been prepared for. He didn’t even realize he’d been driving in that direction. But when he pulled up in front of her condo she wasn’t there, her car glaringly absent from the driveway.
He hadn’t called. He didn’t know what he would say. He needed to see her for the right words to come. Talking into a machine? Yeah, that just wasn’t going to cut it.
It had been a miracle that he’d somehow managed to pull it together for practice, but a guy only needed his ass handed to him once in a twenty-four-hour period.
Then after practice, he had a repeat performance of going in a direction before he’d consciously made the decision. As he walked through those glass doors and into the room, the back of his neck started to itch, and he’d be surprised if he hadn’t just broken out in a rash.
He made his way down to the end of the hall, where Abby’s office had been, in search of Brooke. But when he got to the small reception area, he found boxes stacked all along Brooke’s desk and her walls were free from the framed art that had been there before.
He stuck his head into the open door that had been Abby’s office. Besides the computer monitor on the desk and the office furniture, it was cleared out. The built-in bookcases behind the desk were bare, all of her books and pictures gone. Her diplomas were missing from the wall, the deep blue rug no longer spread out in the middle of the floor, and the plant she’d kept in the corner had disappeared.
The arena was visible through the open blinds on the windows. The light from the sun broken by the thin plastic rectangles caused lines to form on the walls and floor of her very empty office.
It was just… sad. Sad without her. Well, he could relate to that now, couldn’t he?
“Can I help you?”
Logan turned around to find Brooke. She was wearing jeans and a green polo shirt, her hair pulled back into a high ponytail.
“Logan,” she said in surprise. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Yeah, me either. You leaving?” he asked, indicating the boxes. He didn’t know Brooke all that well, but Abby had talked about her assistant all the time. He hoped she hadn’t been fired, too.
“Yes, I resigned with Abby.”
“You what? I thought Abby was fired.”
“Depends on how you want to look at it I guess.” She shrugged. “She accepted another job about two hours before everything went down the other night. So, can you really be fired when you’ve already resigned?”
“What job did she take?”
“Running the PR department at St. Ignatius. Gemma Faro offered it to her.”
“She was leaving the Stampede? Why?” he asked as he folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the doorjamb.
“You don’t know?” Brooke raised her eyebrows as she tilted her head to the side and looked at Logan. “Abby didn’t tell you?”
“She didn’t tell me a lot of things apparently.” The words came out a little
more bitter than expected.
“You know, she took the job so she could be with you.”
“What?” His arms fell to his side and he straightened.
“Well, at least that was part of the reason. I’m going to guess a fifty-one to forty-nine percent split, that extra two going to you. When she asked me to come with her, she told me why she was leaving, full disclosure and all. I mean she’s excited about the new job no doubt, but I’m pretty sure she was way more excited about the fact that she didn’t have to keep your relationship a secret. A secret that neither of you hid all that well from me, by the way. Well, she was a little bit better than you were, because holy hell when you looked at her it was beyond obvious. But that was just my observation, so—”
“Brooke,” he said firmly as he took a step toward her, “where is she?”
Chapter Fifteen
All or Nothing
Abby looked in the rearview mirror as she switched lanes to take the exit that would lead her to her condo. Black streaks trailed down her cheeks and to her jaw. She didn’t even want to know the state around her eyes. She could only imagine what the area covered by her sunglasses looked like.
So wearing mascara was officially never going to happen again… not for a while at least. A year, maybe two. That’s when she’d be able to function like a normal human being again.
Yeah, fucking right.
She wasn’t sure why she’d even bothered with makeup this morning. Maybe because it was just part of the routine. Something to do to distract her from the numbing pain. But distractions were few and far between. Hadn’t really existed at all since those elevator doors closed and Logan was gone.
Abby had driven to Mirabelle the morning after everything happened; she’d had to get out of town. There’d been absolutely no point for her to stick around, especially after Lindbergh told her she was fired.
Undressed Page 14
